The new electronics has even greater potential than today's silicon based technology. This is because it tackles a wider range of opportunities, from wide area displays to lowest cost power generation and smart packaging. This organic and printed electronics is growing to become a $300 billion market in 2028 and, in 2008 alone, many factories come on stream to make "post silicon" transistors, displays and solar cells. They are using thin films of both organic and inorganic compounds and, increasingly, printing, because that gives greater output, larger areas and lower cost.

Most of the action is taking place in East Asia, Europe and North America, so IDTechEx has prepared the world's first in depth reports on the companies, technologies and trends involved in each of these regions. To be comprehensive, they include all those thin film technologies beyond silicon that are not yet printed but may be printed in due course.

Answers to your questions

This is the world's first and only report analysing the subject in depth. It compares and analyses the activities of 280 organisations in 19 European countries by technology and region. It gives full contact details of these organisations and, where appropriate, examples of patenting performance, research programs, products and scientific papers presented in 2008 onwards.

It is intended for company executives, investors, researchers, developers, regulators and others in the field or intending to participate in this huge opportunity. It is an invaluable first call for those building customer lists, seeking partners or acquisitions and assessing present and future competition. It covers all printed and potentially printed electronics and electrics, whether organic or inorganic, because only that gives the full picture.

In which regions and technologies is Europe strong? Where is government support greatest and most consistent and what technology is it for? Is the huge academic effort leading to enough start ups being created? How can things be improved? Is most of the work in Europe on transistors, sensors, batteries, electroluminescent displays, RFID or what? Where is Europe likely to win and where will it lose? How do the types of activity compare by number of projects? Who is acquiring whom and why? It is all here.

This report is based on intensive interviewing, patent searches, conference analysis and literature and web searches, all carried out in 2007 and 2008. It gives a great deal of information not otherwise available, because IDTechEx is a leading consultancy, conference organiser and publisher in this sector and its technical graduates travel intensively from their bases in Germany, the UK, the USA and Australasia. The report will be updated monthly this year, such is the speed at which the subject is now progressing. When you buy it, you obtain the very latest information. Indeed, the three authors are respectively based in the UK, Germany and the USA and are available for limited further support, at no charge, to those buying this report.

The Executive Summary and Conclusions compares the data by organisation, country and device (OLED, ac electroluminescent display, electrophoretic display, RFID, transistor, organic photovoltaic, inorganic photovoltaic, battery, other). It compares Europe with East Asia and the USA in research versus industrial strength in this subject, participation by giant corporations, foreign ownership and other criteria. The individual profiles give full contact details, examples of latest scientific papers - including many not yet presented - news stories, products, patent performance and more. Each organization profile is identified with activity in fine detail chosen from:

Batteries lithium

Batteries manganese dioxide zinc

Batteries other

Conductor patterns

Consultancy

Device user

Displays electrochromic

Displays electroluminescent

Displays electrophoretic

Displays other

Displays thermochromic

Displays OLED

Fuel cells

General manufacturing

Inks/materials - inorganic

Inks/materials - organic

Laser ablation printing

Lasers printed

Lighting electroluminescent

Lighting OLED

Logic inorganic

Logic organic

Memory

Metal plating

Other components

Other deposition

Photovoltaic CIGS

Photovoltaic DSSC

Photovoltaic organic

Photovoltaic printed silicon

Photovoltaic other

Printing flexo

Printing gravure

Printing inkjet

Printing litho

Printing screen

Production machinery

RFID

Sensors other

Sensors photodetectors

Sensors temperature

Spin coating

Substrates

System/component integrator

Analyst access from IDTechEx

All report purchases include includes up to 30 minutes telephone time with an expert analyst who will help you link key findings in the report to the business issues you're addressing. This needs to be used within three months of purchasing the report.

Further Information

If you have any questions about this report, please do not hesitate to contact our report team at Research@IDTechEx.com or call Clare on +44 (0) 1223 813 703 if you are based in EMEA or Raoul on +1 617 577 7890 if you are based in the Americas, ROW or Spain.

In addition, all this content is also stored in the IDTechEx Printed Electronics Supplier and Research Database, an online searchable database covering hundreds of companies. For more information, please click here.